Netty Herawaty

Netty Herawaty
Netty Herawaty, 1955
Born	(1930-04-04)4 April 1930 Soerabaia, Dutch East Indies
Died	6 February 1989(1989-02-06) (aged 58) Jakarta, Indonesia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1949–1986
Height	5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Spouse(s)	Darussalam

Netty Herawaty (also Herawati, 4 April 1930 – 6 February 1989) was an Indonesian actress who made more than fifty films between 1949 and 1986.

Born in Surabaya, as a teenager Herawaty toured Java with a number of stage troupes during the Japanese occupation and Indonesian National Revolution. In 1949, she made her feature film debut in Fred Young's Saputangan. After two years of collaborating with Young, appearing in a total of eight films for his Bintang Surabaja Film Corporation, Herawaty migrated to Djamaluddin Malik's Persari, where she soon became the company's most popular stars and appeared in such films as Rodrigo de Villa (1952) and Lewat Djam Malam (1955). When Persari was shut down, Herawaty returned to the theatre, spending most of the 1960s away from Indonesia's struggling film industry. She returned to screen in the 1970s, appearing in supporting roles in more than thirty films before her death.

Herawaty was born in Surabaya, East Java, Dutch East Indies, on 4 April 1930. She graduated from the R.K. Zuster School before becoming active on stage at age thirteen, when she joined Irama Masa, a theatrical company established by the Japanese occupation government. Later in 1943, she married Darussalam, a fellow actor with the company who was ten years her senior. According to an interview with Kentjana, the couple fell in love while their troupe was on a boat returning from Makassar. By 1953 they had one child, a daughter named Rustiany.

In 1945, following the surrender of Japan and the proclamation of Indonesian independence, Herawaty and her husband established the troupe Trimurti, based out of Gombong, Central Java. They toured Java and supported the Indonesians fighting against the returning Dutch colonial forces. This troupe had collapsed by 1947, and the two spent time with Djamaluddin Malik's troupe Bintang Timur and Fred Young's Bintang Surabaja.